Historical and Pictorial Guide of

From the date it first opened on Thursday 1st June, 1922, Woodthorpe Grange Park has been a part of the City of for just a little over ninety-five years. For those, like myself, who have lived all their life facing Woodthorpe Park, and for those who are its visitors, it is hard to imagine life without it. In this day and age, it is all too easy to take for granted our places of communal recreation. As far as we the general public are concerned, they have always been there. But like all things in life they all had a beginning. That beginning was mostly through events that took place maybe three or four centuries ago. For example, Nottingham’s was one of the original areas to be protected in perpetuity by the 1845 Nottingham Enclosure Act, which set aside some 80 acres (32 hectares) for public recreational use. For over 300 years the Forest has been home to sport, including horse racing, cricket and football. In 1773 it was home to the Nottingham Racecourse, where it remained until it moved in 1892 to where it is today at . Nottingham Forest Football Club also played their first games on the Forest after its formation in 1865, hence the club's title, ‘Nottingham Forest.’ Also, and most importantly, the Forest Recreation Ground plays host to Nottingham’s annual Goose Fair. Although the Goose Fair can be traced back to the 13th century, the Goose Fair has been part of the Forest Recreation Ground since 1928 when the fair was transferred from its original site of Nottingham’s , after 1927 prior to its redevelopment. Travel even further back in history and you will see the Forest Recreation Ground once played its part in Nottingham’s hosiery industry, with a series of windmills which were used for spinning cotton.

1900s Forest Recreation Ground Nottingham’s Racecourse Nottingham’s Annual Goose Fair

______

1

Unlike the Forest Recreation Ground’s sporting heritage, Woodthorpe Grange Park’s heritage lies in one of Nottingham’s primary industries, brick making through the Nottingham Patent Brick Company, and the expansion of Britain’s rail network with the construction of the Nottingham Suburban Railway. The brickworks, the railway and ultimately the 52 acres we know of today like the Forest Recreation Ground, the Woodthorpe Estate, as it was known as, not to be confused with today’s Woodthorpe housing Estate, began fifty-three years earlier in 1792 and the Enclosure of Basford. This was when land lot 188 was allotted by the Enclosure Commissioners of Basford (as Sherwood and came under the Parish of Basford) to Henry Cavendish Esquire the 6th Duke of Devonshire for Tithes, and in the same area William Rawson and William Danes were allotted land lot’s 189 and 190 respectively. However, before the 1792 Enclosure of Basford, the core of the Woodthorpe Estate was marked out in a 1609 Crown Survey map of Sherwood Forest as an enclosed field that was occupied by George Hutchinson, a freeholder of the land.

Land Lot 188 Henry Cavendish Esquire, 6th Duke of Devonshire

The Enclosure of Sherwood and Mapperley, when it came into force, meant all the land bounded by the present-day Redcliffe Road, Mansfield Road, Private Road and Woodborough Road. In all, the Enclose Act simply meant: - “The extinction of common rights where people held over farm land and commons of the parish, the abolition of the scattered holdings in the open fields and reallocation of holdings in compact blocks, accompanied usually by the physical separation of the newly created fields and closes by the erection of fences, hedges or stone walls. Thereafter, the lands so enclosed were held ‘in severity’ that is, they were reserved for the sole use of the individual owners or their tenants.”

2

The Avenue Woodthorpe Grange

Map of 1877 showing the Borough of Nottingham

As an example of what the enclosure act means, the above example of the Borough of Nottingham map for 1877, look for Scout Lane, which is now Woodthorpe Drive, and you will see how the land has been divided up in to smaller portions, or as referred to by the enclosure commissioners - parcels. The land, which has been divided, is then let out to tenant farmers who pay their landlord so much in taxes or tithes, which by 1877 would have been Henry Ashwell the person who by then owned the Woodthorpe Estate. ______

What we know as todays Woodthorpe Grange Park began as a 40 acre farm of grass and arable land, bordered by Mansfield Road and Scout Lane (now Woodthorpe Drive) and was owned by Alfred Pogson, who in May 1871 put the land for sale at an auction, where the auctioneer, William Whitehead, produced a sketch map of the area on which it was strongly suggested a 50ft wide road should be built from Mansfield Road right through the heart of what is now Woodthorpe Park. This road was to serve the many villas which could have been built on the site. Fortunately, the houses were never built. John L. Thackeray of Arno Vale House who purchased the land in 1871, a short time later sold it onto Henry Ashwell a master bleacher, who owned factories on Radford Road in the New Basford area of Nottingham.

3

Henry Ashwell

Ordnance Survey Map 1899

Ashwell bought the land in order to create his own estate complete with a private house, Woodthorpe Grange, which was built in 1874, and lived in it with his wife Sarah and two daughters, Mary and Frances, along with two nieces and four servants. The estate was extended in 1881 when Ashwell bought the small brickworks on Scout Lane (Woodthorpe Drive) from John Harrison for £655, and converted it into the rockery/dell gardens, which are now part of the park. Unfortunately for the Ashwell Family the halcyon days did not last long because in 1889 the Nottingham Suburban Railway was opened, and the line ran right across and under their estate.

4

The Rockery/Dell Gardens

Although compensated financially, Ashwell was not happy about Nottingham Suburban Railway crossing right across his estate in 1889. It is recorded that he insisted that Ashwell’s Tunnel, named after him, was lengthened by 10 yards so that it would not disturb the hay ricks in his farmyard at Woodthorpe Farm.

Edward Parry

Shortly after the arrival of the railway, Henry Ashwell sold Woodthorpe Grange and Park to Edward Parry. Parry was a highly renowned civil engineer and amongst his many eminent positions he was County Surveyor, designer and surveyor of the Nottingham Suburban Railway line, and a director of the Nottingham Brick Company, the main beneficiary of the line. It is not clear whether Edward Parry ever actually lived in Woodthorpe Grange; in the 1891 census he is recorded as age 46, living with his wife, Mary, two daughters, four sons and three servants at Elmhurst in Lucknow Drive. In 1905 he sold Woodthorpe Grange and Park to John Godfrey Small, lace manufacturer and Mayor of Nottingham in 1917.

5

John Godfrey Small, the last occupant of Woodthorpe Grange, as Mayor of Nottingham addressing crowds during the Nottinghamshire Patriotic Fair, which was held on Whit Monday, 1917.

______

The Nottingham Suburban Railway

Although little over 3½ miles in length the Nottingham Suburban Railway had an interesting if chequered career. It is suggested that there were two main reasons why the line was proposed by a group of local businessmen including Robert Mellors, a benefactor of the city and then chairman of the Nottingham Patent Brick Company. Firstly, the hilly area to the North East of the city contained considerable deposits of clay, a basic necessity for making bricks, which in the 1800's were needed in larger quantities for the extensive developments that were taking place throughout the country.

Prior to the building of the line, the possibility of direct access to serve these brickworks had seemed very remote and in that respect the building of the Suburban line was in the nature of a self-help exercise. It was of course inevitable that the line would have to make connection with one or other of the major pre-grouping railway companies and it soon became clear that the Great Northern Railway would be the one most likely to be receptive to the scheme. That company’s station was on London Road, unfortunately not particularly convenient to the developing city. Therefore, all train services the GNR operated to the north and west of Nottingham were obliged to make the initial part of the journey via Netherfield, hence initially in the wrong

6 direction so that by the time the train had clocked up 7 miles or more it had still got no further than Daybrook, a distance of slightly over 3 miles. Robert Mellors and his colleagues saw the opportunity to attract the Great Northern Railway Company to its proposals by making connections with that company's lines, at both ends of the new line, thus providing a fairly direct route to the north and to the west of Nottingham, the burden of stiff gradients were outweighed by the reduced mileage and the likelihood of a clear run out of Daybrook as opposed to being delayed by the important and heavy flow of coal traffic between there and Colwick. So it was that a Bill was laid before Parliament in the 1886 session supported strongly by local trade organisations, the proprietors of the Nottingham Brick Company, and indeed the Nottingham Corporation itself. With such initial support which included financial grants, the Great Northern Railway Company was approached with confidence, this resulted in the chairman and some of the directors of that established company visiting the area through which the new line would run, the visit being made by some six months before the Bill became an Act of Parliament. That the Great Northern Railway Company was interested may be gauged by the fact that the new company was empowered to make the required connections at each end of its new line and indeed to enter into working agreements which covered the supply of rolling stock, machinery and even staff to work the line. Edward Parry then 42 years of age, previously the Nottinghamshire County Surveyor, and also director of the Brick Company was appointed engineer to the Nottingham Suburban Railway Company and under his supervision the line was built between June 1887 and November 1889 at a cost of £262,500.

The line was double track throughout with neat but modest stations at Thorneywood, St Ann's Well and Sherwood, only the last named not being provided with the goods yard and shed. Earthworks were heavy with bridges, some entirely constructed of brick, others with girders supported on substantial masonry piers, accompanying deep cuttings and high embankments. All of this says nothing of four tunnels at Sneinton, Thorneywood, Sherwood, Ashwell's comprising more than eleven hundred yards of boring.

7

Daybrook Station Sherwood Station

St. Ann’s Well Station Thorneywood Station

8

1899: Ordnance Survey Map

This is to certify that on the date hereof Mrs. Edith Russell of 34 Waterloo Road, Nottingham was Registered on the peoples of the Company as the Properties of Sixty Pounds Ordinary Stock dated the 5th day of October 1891.

9

Sneinton Tunnel South Thorneywood Tunnel South

Sherwood Tunnel South Ashwell Tunnel South

Two brickworks were connected to the line in the vicinity of Thorneywood whilst the established works at Mapperley belonging to the Nottingham Patent Brick Company fed into the line, north of Sherwood Station by means of a steep incline. It should not be forgotten that the last-named company supplied a substantial number of bricks for use in building the line itself, doubtless to its own advantage. The 2nd of December 1889 was fixed for the commencement of passenger services and on that day the first train left London Road Station for Daybrook but this was not without incident, because the contract Mr Edwards claimed that he still had possession of the line and appointed an agent who apparently attempted to prevent the first train from making progress beyond Trent Lane Junction. From 1889 until 1900 the line enjoyed its heyday and was certainly at its busiest. The trams had not yet arrived on the scene, let alone the motorcar, and for just over 10 years the line was the direct route to the city which it set out to be.

10

1900: Passenger Train pulling into Sherwood Station

Mineral Line from the Brick Works The top end of the Mineral line

1890 the Leen Valley Line terminated at Newstead and four trains serving that line ran via Sherwood with at least five others going to Daybrook or Basford. In addition to this, from the beginning of 1893 there came a cuckoo into the nest, for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway had pushed its line South to make an end on junction with the Leen Valley Line at Newstead, the very line which wish to be extended at the end of the 19th century and the signal for the Nottingham Suburban Railway the start of its decline. The Manchester Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway ran six weekday trains in each direction from Sheffield to London Road Station in Nottingham via Chesterfield, Newstead and Thorneywood, surely one of the strangest routes ever to be run by regular passenger services between those cities. The Great Northern Railway made further use of the line by adding into the scheduled and Ilkeston train in each direction on weekdays, which was extended to and from Derby on Fridays only. Later when the Leen Valley extension line was open to Skegby in 1898, the Suburban Line was coping with 13 northbound and 15 southbound passenger trains in addition to the six between Nottingham and Sheffield already mentioned. With the opening of Nottingham Victoria station in 1900 and only 11 years after itself being open for traffic, the Suburban Railway at a stroke lost most of its importance and from then on fewer stopping passenger trains used the line on account of the direct route to Basford afforded by the Great Central Line and the Junctions at Bagthorpe. The electric tram appeared in Nottingham in 1901 and one of the first routes in operation was from a point close to Sherwood Station and running past the new Nottingham Victoria. This did not help the cause of passenger trains on the Suburban Line; further nails were driven into its coffin with additional tram services along the Wells Road and later along Carlton Road, adjacent to Thorneywood Station. Although several trains use the Suburban Line, some of them entering Nottingham Victoria from the north and then departing via Weekday Cross and Trent Lane without reversal, not all of them served

11 the three stations, often being first stop Daybrook. Small wonder then that on 13th of July 1916, partly as a wartime measure, the three stations were closed and thereafter in terms of passenger services the line was merely a shortcut, until the end came for the Leen Valley Trains in 1931. Goods traffic on the Suburban Railway was generated by three short branches two brickworks, two of them being at the top of rope worked inclines, together with local traffic received at and dispatched from goods yards at Thorneywood and St Ann's Well. No records have been consulted relating to timetable workings of goods trains along the line, but it may be supposed that in the years prior to 1914, there would be two daily trips along the line to clear the goods yards of general merchandise. Much of the traffic would doubtless be to or from the brickworks which had their own direct connections and would therefore account for several wagon loads each day. During the same period the business at St Ann's Well may have been somewhat sparse because it was not located in a heavily industrialised part of the city. On the other hand, Thorneywood found itself somewhat nearer to the factors and markets but even so it probably had a small turnover on account of its geographical proximity to the warehouses of the London and North Western Railway on Manvers Street and the Great Northern Railway on London Road. In the years after the First World War what traffic there was declined to such an extent that a pickup goods train running twice or perhaps three times per week was sufficient to cope with the residue. In this respect road transport had made great advances at the expense of the railway. The line did however come into its own for a few days in January 1925, following a fall in the roof of Mapperley Tunnel effectively isolating Colwick yards from much of the coal traffic which kept it going. Obviously, some trains were capable of being diverted through Nottingham Victoria Station via the junctions at Bagthorpe and Bulwell Common, that line capacity meant that for a few days’ traffic was diverted to run via Sherwood and Nottingham Low-Level yard where a reversal was necessary. There are no reports of any runaways but suffice it to say that the job of working a 30 wagon loose coupled coal train, up a sharp incline of 1 in 70 followed by 2 miles steeper than that down the grade with a severe curve and a mainline junction at the bottom of the slope required a certain amount of skill. The line was visited by a passenger train once more on the 16th of June 1951, in the shape of an enthusiast special and some six weeks later it was cleared of all items of rolling stock, many of which had been stored wagons, and was left quietly to decay for three years until the dismantling train arrived in June 1954. It should be said that from 1941 access could not be gained from the Trent Lane end because the line had been damaged during an air raid in May of 1941. There was evidently no haste in dismantling the line for the junction and Daybrook lingered on until the early 1957. Today some of the formation has returned to nature but much of it has either been overbuilt or filled in and is therefore in many places difficult to trace.

12

Former Sherwood Station, 16th July 1951 Former Sherwood Station after line closure

Sherwood Station as it appeared in 1900 2007: Woodthorpe and Winchester Court Flats

Date unknown: Picture taken from Woodthorpe Drive 2016: The same location

From Scenes from the Past: 11 The Railways in and around Nottingham by V. Forest & W. Taylor, 1991

______

13

SHERWOOD STATION RECOLLECTIONS

Ard Dunby

Sherwood Station and the allotments at Sherwood Vale were my playgrounds in the late 1940's and 1950's. I derived great pleasure watching a twice weekly goods train (Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings) shunting trucks of bricks and coal at Sherwood Station.

The railway, which ran up to Mapperley Brickyard from a junction on the southeast side of Ashwell's Tunnel, was standard gauge. (There was also a 15”- or 18”-gauge line running throughout the clay quarry system from Sherwood Vale to Breck Hill, Mapperley.) I well recall the 'brickyard man' sitting astride a buffer as he rode with his charge of trucks down the incline! (No health and safety fears then!). Just to the right of the Brickyard Incline bridge on Sherwood Vale, once stood a brick-built hut with a slated roof. Inside this was a full width wooden bench, and a stool. On the wall was an electric bell and a telephone wired through a system of telegraph poles to the cable winding room at Mapperley Brickyard.

Twice a week the brickyard man would ride down with his wagons full of bricks and meet up, near the hut, with the LNER guard from the pick-up goods. Both men would have shunting poles and would discuss instructions for the transfer of the bricks in exchange for wagons of coal and empties. The visiting goods engine would push a mixture of full and empty trucks over the points at Ashwell's Tunnel and round the steep curve to the hut. It was here that LNER territory met up with Nottingham Patent Brick Company railway. Here, the NPBC man would secure the steel rope to a chain and shackle, then hook it on to a rake of 5 or 6 trucks. Through means of a bell-code he would signal the winding room 'up top' and away the convoy would go. I used to watch this procedure countless times during my school holidays and Saturday mornings.

Meanwhile the LNER guard would walk along the line of remaining trucks pinning down their brakes so that the engine could safely uncouple to continue with work at St Ann's Well and Thorneywood stations. As my father had an allotment on the railway land, to the left of the Sherwood Tunnel portal (1442 yards), I used to climb down the embankment and stand on the platform, waving to the crew, as the train trundled into the tunnel.

On Sunday 9th February 1930 the line was singled, signalling removed - and later the main station buildings at Sherwood were demolished. Local folk scavenged the timber to build sheds and greenhouses.

In my youth I remember seeing only three passenger trains on the line. Two during the summer of 1949 originating at Basford and running through to Thorneywood and return. The third and final being already referred to as the RCTS special excursion just before the line finally closed - and which I watched pass Sherwood station in both directions.

Until closure there remained the signal box, weighbridge, lamp room, nameboards for both tunnels, two ground frames (one at Ashwell's Tunnel and one at the northeast end of the station platform) and a very well-maintained permanent way.

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/sherwood/index24.shtml

14

Detailed Historical Survey of Woodthorpe Park

Historical Information of the Woodthorpe Area

Woodthorpe is about 3 miles north east of Nottingham, between the town of Arnold and the Nottingham Suburbs of Sherwood and Mapperley. The land slopes upwards from Mapperley. The land slopes upwards from Mansfield Road, which forms the western boundary of the area, to Plains Road. The northern edge is approximately the line of the old Great Northern Railway, part of which is now a footpath, the southern limit is formed by Woodthorpe Drive. The name Woodthorpe does not seem to be used until the early 19th century, except for Woodthorpe House, which is shown on the map of 1774. For much of the 19th Century Woodthorpe extended into what is now Sherwood. In 1877 Sherwood became part of the borough of Nottingham, and the boundary between it and Woodthorpe was along Mansfield Road and the north side of Woodthorpe Drive. In the 18th Century the area had not yet been named as Woodthorpe. It was an open and rural land setting with close affinities to Daybrook and Arnold. Indeed, it was part of the parish of Arnold. At that time William Cope Sherbrooke, who had lived in Oxton and was a friend of Ichabod Wright, the Nottingham Banker, owned much of the land, including Swinehouse Farm. In 1790 there was a South Swinehouse Feld where pigs grazed; it was known as Swinehouse Road on Sandersons map of 1835. Later it was changed to Scout Lane (Woodthorpe Drive). Whites Directory for 1832 mentions a little to the South East of Daybrook is Swinnows where there are two farms and a brick yard. Swinnows is a corruption of Swinehouse and locals used it to describe not only the farm of that name but the area around it. In the history of Arnold, we are told that the name Swinnows or Swinehouses originates from the fact that “when the land was unenclosed and largely forest there probably be pig hovels in the wood for shelter.” At one time, much of the area was covered by trees, as it was part of Sherwood Forest.

______

Fame of a sort came to Woodthorpe in the early 20th Century. D. H. Lawrence had been a frequent visitor at Haggs Farm near Eastwood where the Chambers family lived, being particularly interested in their daughter Jessie. When the family moved to Swinehouse Farm he continued to visit them there. Lawrence gave Jessie the name Muriel in one of his short stories, and the character Miriam in ‘Sons and Lovers,’ is based on her. In an introduction to a book by Jessie Chambers, entitled ‘D.H.Lawrence – A Personal Record’, her friend Helen Corke wrote: ‘During the year 1911 ‘Muriel and I shared our holidays, staying either at her home at Arno Vale Farm, Mapperley, or with my parents in Croydon.’

15

Detail of the Grade II Listed Building – Woodthorpe Grange

Woodthorpe Grange was built in 1874 and comprises of: Rock faced sandstone and ashlar with shallow pitched, hipped slated roofs and seven stone chimney stacks. T-plan, rear range late 18th century, reclad 1874, front range added 1874.

EXTERIOR: Quions chamfered plinth, moulded first floor still band, moulded eves topped with balustrade. Two stories. West garden front three windows, with recessed centre containing a tripartile plain sash topped with a central segmental pediment, and above a similar window in a plain ashlar surround. Either side are two storey cantered bay windows with plain sashes and moulded ashlar surrounds. North Front has a single plain sash either side of an external stack on both floors. To the left a larger sash and above a Venetian window with moulded ashlar surround. Beyond to the left a set back wing with plain sashes. South entrance front has a single narrow sash either side of an external stack on both floors with to the right a projecting porch with coupled pilasters and a balustrade parapet. The doorway is round-headed with a pair of double panel doors and plain fanlight. Set back to the right rear wing is a central plain sash flanked by tripartitle sashes on both floors.

INTERIOR: Completely refitted in 1874. The entrance hall has glazed columns and pilasters, Minton tile floor, dentilated coving, classical floor surrounds and a single flight and return staircase. The stairway has an ornate iron balustrade with a wooden handrail. Two reception rooms to the west have linking segmental arches, now blocked, deeply moulded coving, classical door cases and fine grey marble fireplaces. Upper floors have similar well-preserved interior features including door cases, fireplaces and coving. Some rooms also retain corner boxes for the gas ventilator system which vented through the ceiling roses.

16

1921 Woodthorpe Grange is purchased by the Nottingham Corporation

With a £10,000 donation from Sir Jesse Boot the Nottingham Corporation purchased the whole of the 52- acre Woodthorpe Estate in 1921 for £15,000, which included Woodthorpe Grange with carriage drives, which are still there to this day, conservatory, glasshouses, garage, stabling and a gardener and chauffeurs’ cottages. The sale documentation, which is held in Nottinghamshire Archives, shows that the auctioneers anticipated selling the estate as five separate lots, separating the Grange and pleasure gardens from the farm, the market garden, and the meadows to be sold for housebuilding. However, it was purchased as one lot by Nottingham City Council, facilitated by the donation from Sir Jesse Boot on the condition that the whole site becoming a public recreation area.

As reported in the Nottingham Guardian for the 23rd July, 1921: "The Council has not had time as yet to deliberate on the best purposes to which the place can be put, but as we understand the idea is to use it as a park and recreation ground, and not for building." The report the goes on to say: "There is no lack of uses to which the house can be devoted. It might be used either as refreshment rooms, as a home for the Natural History Museum, or as a health resort." The report is concluded by saying: "all these questions will have to be thrashed out later. In view of the insistent demand for more spaces for tennis, bowls, cricket and football, the grounds will prove an immense boon to that part of the city."

In celebration of the purchase of the site, a month later on 22nd August the Mayor, Alderman H. Bowles and Mayoress Mrs. Bowles gave a garden party, which was held outside the Grange and amongst the invited guests was Sir Jesse Boot who in all gave £350,000 (£14.1m), which enabled the Nottingham Corporation to purchase not only the Woodthorpe Estate but also the Highfields Estate, the home of the , and the park land adjacent to what became the Victoria Embankment and Memorial Gardens.

17

The Mayor welcoming Sir Jesse Boot, who has The Mayor (Ald. H. Bowles) and Mayoress, the contributed largely to the funds for purchasing the Sheriff (Councillor J. Freckingham). And Mrs. estate. Freckingham receive their guests on the terrace.

1st June 1922: Woodthorpe Grange Park Opening Ceremony Nottingham Evening Post 2nd June 1922 The Mayor and Sir Jesse Boot’s Munificence

At yesterday’s opening of Woodthorpe Grange Park, Sherwood the Mayor read the following message received from Sir Jesse Boot.

“I very much regret that under the circumstances it will be quite impossible for me to be present at the official opening on the 1st of June. I hope you have a very successful function. It seems to me that this new park will be extremely useful and widely appreciated. I think it will be a most suitable place for annual gathering of Sunday Schools and day Schools as well as those who do not wish to go to the expense of traveling further afield.”

A condition attached by Sir Jesse Boot to the gift of £10,000 explained the Mayor was that grounds which they were now opening would remain unbuilt on and should be used for recreative purposes. Mr. Frederick Berryman reminded his hearers, both old and young of what they owed to the munificence of Sir Jesse who he said was with them in spirit.

On the call of the Mayor resounding cheers were given to Sir Jesse.

18

Tuesday 10th July,1928 Their Majesties King George V and Queen Mary Visit Woodthorpe Park

Arriving in the city from Welbeck Abbey, on Tuesday 10th July 1928 their Majesties King George V and Queen Mary visited Woodthorpe Park. On entering, their Majesties were met with an enthusiastic crowd of 17,000 children, who had all been transported by rail from various parts of Nottingham to Sherwood Station and Woodthorpe Park, where an open-air concert was held in honour of the Royal visit. It was during the visit to Woodthorpe Park that King George, responding to a welcoming speech by Mr William John Board, O.B.E. the Town Clerk, that he bestowed the title on Nottingham’s Chief Magistrate the title of Lord, thus entitling the Mayor of Nottingham to become the ‘Lord Mayor’ of Nottingham, a title that was bestowed on Nottingham’s first Lord Mayor, Aldermen Edmund Huntsman.

King George V and Queen Mary being welcomed to Woodthorpe Park

19

King George V and Queen Mary officially being welcomed by the Town Clerk, Mr. William Board O.B.E.

King George V and Queen Mary leaving Woodthorpe Park

The tour also saw King George V officially open the University College of Nottingham’s Trent Building, which was built on the grounds of the Highfields Estate, then the home of Sir Jesse Boot, and to officially open the Royal Agricultural Show on . Also, in attendance, at the official opening, was their eldest son HRH The Prince of Wales who had recently purchased Grove Farm, in Lenton.

20

Official Opening of the Trent Building Grove Farm, Lenton

King George V and Queen Mary arrive at the Royal Agricultural Show, Wollaton Park ______

21

Woodthorpe Grange’s Last Tenant Farmer

As reported in the Nottingham Evening News for the 2nd February 1939 Mr. Thomas Charlesworth, Woodthorpe Grange’s last tenant farmer finally gave up his farm. With farm buildings believed to be 200 years old a decision was made by the Nottingham Corporation to further develop the park and turn part of it into a children’s play area. Apart from having farmed on the site for 15 years, for 36 years Mr. Charlesworth was employed at the Nottingham Gas Department, and of those 15 years as a tenant farmer, for ten years he was assisted by his 88-year-old father-in-law, Mr. Jasper Kinsey. In the same report Mr. Charlesworth went on to reminisce, when fifty years ago the farm, then under the ownership of Mr. Fred Shacklock, extended for 65 acres, and Woodthorpe Grange being built, according to the report, by Henry Ashwell. He then went on to say, once the ownership of the farm had been passed on to the Nottingham Corporation his job as a tenant farmer was greatly reduced to cutting the hay and grazing the farms livestock which, as he concluded, has been further reduced to keeping a few pigs and hens.

Woodthorpe Farm Part of Woodthorpe Park that was farming land

______

Construction of an Air Raid Shelter on Woodthorpe Park

Taken in 1939, a photograph taken from a news report published in the Nottingham Evening Post during the construction of steel reinforced concrete air raid shelter on Woodthorpe Grange Park.

22

Woodthorpe Park’s Relic From World War Two Covered in Air Raid Shelters

______

Then and Now!

Woodthorpe Drive Road Bridge

1983 2016

23

1977 1983

August, 2011 November, 2011

Winter Snow

Winter 1982 – Two Photographs

24

1981 1979

January 2010 January 2010

______

1983 Summer Storm

25

______

Summer Storm, 2013

26

The Grotto was known to have existed as far back as the 1950’s. The grotto was pulled down for health and safety reasons with the stone going to Newstead Abbey

From the reminiscences of local residents who valued Woodthorpe Grange Park following its opening on the 1st June 1922: “I thought of Woodthorpe Park as somewhere special to visit. Before the Second World war there was Cecil Zambra and his troupe of Pirouette’s whose free shows, I attended on summer evenings.”

27

2018: Grass Stage

“Near the Grange building there is still the open grass stage on which plays were performed, and an extensive lawn bordered by heathers, where just after the last war (World War Two) I sat and was entertained by Shakespearean drama.”

1979: Looking towards the Grange

28

Woodthorpe Grange Park’s Greenhouses and Plant Shop

Question: What have Blackpool and Flyde Borough Council, Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, Newark and Sherwood District Council, Amber Valley Borough Council, Gedling Borough Council and Broxtowe Borough Council, together with Wilford Hill Crematorium, Wollaton Park, the Arboretum and Nottingham’s traffic islands all have in common? They all receive plants and shrubs grown in the Greenhouses on Woodthorpe Park. It should also be pointed out that the greenhouse staff even prepare floral displays for one of Nottingham’s major sporting events such as the Nottingham Tennis Open held annually at Nottingham’s Tennis Centre on University Boulevard.

A visit to the greenhouses and plant shop on Woodthorpe Grange Park, in the spring and early summer time and you can only marvel at the riot of colour that is produced all year round by such a small team of dedicated employees. For example, the staff in the greenhouses produce around 1 million per year, of which 30 per cent of plants are grown directly from seed.

Wollaton Park Camellia House Italian Gardens, Stanley Park, Blackpool

In all, the small dedicated team of staff who work at the park’s greenhouses propagates and grows half a million plants each year for the city’s displays as well as producing plants, as already shown, for neighbouring local authorities and others further afield. The photographic examples of floral displays seen on many of Nottingham’s traffic islands together with the examples of the floral displays seen outside the Camellia House on Wollaton Park, and the Italian Gardens on Stanley Park in Blackpool is proof of how the work carried out by Woodthorpe Park’s team of greenhouse staff is an immense success, and how, by their actions can show to others what Nottingham’s team of horticulturist’s produces is a countrywide success.

29

Apart from growing plants for the city’s displays and for neighbouring local authorities and those further afield, plants are also grown for public to purchase via the park’s Plant Shop. Originally opened in 2015, the Plant Shop stocks a great range of seasonal plants, which changes on a regular basis to suite the season. For example, the Plant Shop have on sale a wide range of summer bedding plants that are ready for hanging baskets and planters. Apart from bedding plants, the Plant Shop also has a stock of trees, shrubs and perennials. Of course, if there is something you want and you can’t find it …then please ask as the staff who work in the shop, they will be only too happy to help.

Re-cycling your Plastic

As the photograph above illustrates, when purchasing plants and shrubs from the Plant Shop, apart from the plastic plant pots your plants come in, if you are purchasing a large quantity you will be given a plastic tray, which, depending on the size, can hold up to a dozen plants or more. However, once the plants you have purchased have been planted in your garden it is knowing what to do with the plastic that is leftover. The Plant Shop do not accept returned used plastic, even if it has been cleaned. Instead, they ask you to simply put the unwanted plastic pots and trays into your re-cycle bin.

30

A place to hone your photographic skills

If you are a keen photographer, and in particular macro photography, and like taking closeups of flowers, the Plant Shop is the ideal location to be. However, a word of caution, you may get some funny looks from unsuspecting members of the public when it appears you are getting up close and personal with your camera!

Soon to grace Nottingham’s City Centre, along Summer bedding plants at prices that can beat with other examples, floral sculptures from plants our main street rivals! grown in the Greenhouses on Woodthorpe Park.

______

31

Woodthorpe Grange Tropical House

According to www.haarkon.co.uk The Tropical House adjacent to the Plant Shop and greenhouses is the kind of greenhouse where cacti and palm trees lean against each other for some extra support; the very mature Monstera is fruiting gloriously and of course there's a dinosaur for the kids to discover. Also, Woodthorpe Grange Tropical House is just lovely and because as it is always with us, foliage proves to be king.

In more recent times, to keep the tropical house, in a condition suitable for visitors to Woodthorpe Park to come and look around, volunteers from the Friends of Woodthorpe Grange Park now look after the plants in the Tropical House, which includes regular watering along with weeding of the flower beds.

In the final analysis, tucked away in the far corner of the Mapperley end of Woodthorpe Park, Nottingham has a hidden gem. The small band of staff who run the greenhouses and the Plant Shop deserve our praises for the work they do. Without their efforts Nottingham and other parts of the country would be a less colourful place without the small band of staff who run the greenhouses and propagate the wonderful flowers we all take for granted. Therefore, as a visitor to Woodthorpe Grange Park and the Plant Shop, I would ask you to give the staff there a little bit of praise for the work they do, and let them know how much their work is appreciated. After all, praise and appreciation go a long way!

______

32

The Woodthorpe Park Café

After an absence of four decades in 2011/12 £200,000 of Council funding was invested to rebuild the park’s pitch and putt kiosk and provide toilets and a cafe. The kiosk was designed to complement the park’s surroundings and is very environmentally friendly. The building has a 'green' roof made of sedum, a perennial plant which forms blue-green rosettes of succulent foliage throughout the summer. This encourages plants to grow and wildlife to visit. Light tubes allow the building to be lit using natural daylight, movement sensors minimise waste on electric lighting with push-taps installed in the toilets that automatically shut off to avoid water wastage.

Managed by Bean Culture, there are four similar outlets also placed on Nottingham parks. Apart from Woodthorpe Park there are outlets on Bestwood Country Park, Bulwell Forest, the Arboretum and Holme Pierrepont Hall, there is even an outlet at the Nottingham Tennis Centre on University Boulevard. The café on Woodthorpe Park also features on www.tripadvisor.co.uk website in which people are encouraged to comment about their experiences of their visit to various visitor attractions other than Woodthorpe Park. For example, there are two favourable comments from August 2016 about the service given by the café’s staff. The first comment says:

A super little cafe serving hot and cold snacks, ice creams and drinks etc Without exception, the staff are friendly and polite -- a real joy to pop in there after a walk around or a visit to the children's play area. We love the place! Well done to the lovely staff!” The second comment simply says: “Lovely park to either walk, drink great coffee or have a round of golf. We started to visit here a couple of years ago and have been every week since.

______

33

Aerial Views Overlooking Woodthorpe Grange Park from the Roof of Woodthorpe and Winchester Court Flats

34